The Rotate View tool allows you to rotate your artboard. To reset it, double-click the Rotate View tool. You can also use the main overhead menu View, which has options for rotating the artboard to certain degrees, resetting, and even rotating to a specific selection.
My name is April, and I’ve been working in the graphic design field for 13+ years now. I work in Illustrator daily creating everything from logo designs to multi-page layouts, so I work with artboards every day.
When drawing on paper, you may want to turn your paper to see something or just to view it and get a different perspective. Adobe Illustrator allows us to do that by rotating the artboard. It doesn’t change the dimensions of your document but temporarily rotates for your viewing.
You can still use all the tools, guides, rulers, etc with the rotate view, but it doesn’t change anything print-wise.
Let’s look further into it.
Key Takeaways
- The Rotate View tool is a quick way to rotate your artboard.
- The keyboard shortcut for the Rotate View Tool is Shift + H.
- To quickly reset the view, double-click the Rotate View Tool button in the Tools panel
- The View menu in the main overhead menu offers similar Rotate View options
Note: The screenshots from this tutorial are taken from Adobe Illustrator CC Windows version.
Method 1: Rotate View Tool
Here’s how the Rotate View Tool works.
Step 1: Select the Rotate View Tool. It is in the flyout menu under the Hand Tool. You can also use the keyboard shortcut Shift + H.
Step 2: You will see your cursor change. Click and drag anywhere on the canvas. You will see an angle and the degree pop up as you rotate.
When you release the mouse, your artboard will have rotated.
You can continue to click and drag to rotate your artboard more. When you are ready for the view to reset, simply double-click the Rotate View Tool button in the Tools panel.
If you don’t want to change the artboard orientation and simply want to see how it looks from a different perspective, you can use the View menu.
In the main overhead menu, click View > Rotate View, and then you will see a list of angles you can rotate the view. For example, I chose 90.
My artboard has rotated 90 degrees. You can continue to choose other degree listings and adjust your view until it is where you want it to be.
You may have also noticed the Rotate View to Selection option in the View menu. If you have an object selected with the selection tool, you can click that option to rotate it to your selection.
The View menu also offers a quick button to Reset Rotate View. And the keyboard shortcut is Shift + Ctrl/Command + 1.
Tip: You can also return the view to normal by choosing the 0-degree or tapping the Esc button on your keyboard.
Final Thoughts
Rotating your artboard in Adobe Illustrator can be a quick way to gain a new perspective on your design. Adobe offers a Rotate View Tool and a Rotate View section in the View overhead menu. Be sure to try those out the new time you are working in Adobe Illustrator!
Have you tried the Rotate View Tool in Illustrator? What were you working on that warranted the use? Let me know in the comments below.
